The dark secrets of LinkedIn

Most people become obsessed with LinkedIn when they first become active

Insights, Not Hype

Pssst, did you miss the first issue of Solo Synapse? If so, shame on you. It’s FREE and you can find it here. This issue’s topic is Social Selling and I had the pleasure of featuring Adriana Tica and Kevin Dowling.

Read time: 3 minutes

Most people become obsessed with LinkedIn when they first become active.

They make new connections, start dabbling with posting, and learn a tonne of new stuff every day.

What’s not to like?

Quite a few see big creators’ success and decide to give this “creator economy” a go. Or maybe they already have a gig, but they lean into turning LinkedIn into their #1 lead generation channel.

I’ve been active for a little over a year. Let me save you some time and show you what hides underneath the shiny facade.

1. People lie

This was an obvious one, wasn’t it? I’ve had lead gen people come to me for help because they don’t have… leads. How can you trust someone to get you leads if they can’t get them themselves?

But if you look at most of the content, everyone is crushing it and making $10K+/MRR.

Take it with a grain of salt. Announcing great MRR is an old technique, one that unfortunately works.

Lying doesn’t have to be so direct, either. When someone shares they make $10K+/MRR only because they started posting on LinkedIn, that’s very likely not true even if the revenue part checks out.

As Adriana Tica says, these people were oftentimes well connected before they even activated creator mode on LinkedIn, they have a background in marketing/sales and they already had some solid business experience. So no, it didn’t work out only because of LinkedIn.

2. It takes a lot of work

Once you decide to embrace the creator economy seriously, you see how much time it actually takes.

Content creation, customer discovery, creating lead magnets, email automations and sequences, tracking AND on top of all that — engagement and DMs. I’m not even talking about your actual client work.

This is a full-time job, folks.

And unfortunately, if you want to monetize LinkedIn, you have to go all-in.

3. And this is why people don’t do it alone

To me, this is the biggest lie of LinkedIn solopreneurship — you have to be on top of all those things I mentioned above. On your own.

Let me tell you a secret:

Everyone who’s actually making money from LinkedIn has a VA. Or an army of VAs and other assistants. Do you think a business owner who’s slammed with client work has time to do prospecting or engage much? Of course not.

Is this a shock? Maybe it is. Maybe you knew this.

I ran a poll a while ago, asking you whether engagement is a chore for you. 90% said yes.

Personally, I think as business owners we shouldn’t be forced to do it. But unfortunately, there’s no other way to get organic reach.

What we don’t pay with time, we pay with money, right?

This may have been a bit of a rant. I don’t know about you, but in the last 8 months, I’ve seen more than a dozen excellent creators simply burn out. They quit.

They had excellent offers, they put in the work but it was too much. Not because they’re weak, but because it really is too much if you have to do it right.

Are you frustrated too? If yes, let’s chat.